NewsWrap
for the week ending July 12, 2003
(As broadcast on This Way Out program #798, distributed 7-14-03)
[Written by Cindy Friedman, with thanks to Fenceberry, Rex Wockner, Graham
Underhill, and Greg Gordon]
Anchored by Cindy Friedman and Christopher Gaal
British Columbia this week became the second Canadian province to legally
marry gay and lesbian couples. The province's highest court, the BC Court of
Appeal, had already found for equal marriage rights for same-gender couples in
May, but had also suspended that ruling until July 2004 to give lawmakers time
to act. The plaintiff couples in that case appealed the suspension after
Ontario's highest court put gay and lesbian marriages into effect there last
month, and this week the BC high court agreed to allow marriages to proceed
immediately. By the end of the same day, 11 marriage licenses had been issued to
gay and lesbian couples in BC.
BC's first legal same-gender marriage united Tom Graff and Anthony Porcino in
front of the provincial courthouse, in a ceremony performed by openly gay
Vancouver City Councilor and former Member of the BC Legislative Assembly and
Cabinet Tim Stevenson, who is also the United Church of Canada's first openly gay
ordained minister.
The United Church, Canada's largest Protestant denomination, has no
official policy on gay and lesbian marriages, but a number of its BC clergy are
willing to perform them, as well as some Unitarian ministers and Reform Jewish
rabbis.
Like Ontario, BC has no residency requirement for marriage licenses and can
marry couples immediately.
Numerous U.S. couples are expected to cross the border from Washington state.
However, U.S. legal experts continue to urge prospective spouses to first
carefully consider possible consequences of their marrying, and to call for
unity in any challenges to U.S. laws since the wrong test cases could hurt the
larger effort.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Government's draft bill to change the federal
definition of marriage from "one man and one woman" to "two persons" was expected
to reach the Supreme Court of Canada for review this week. The ruling Liberal
Party would very much like to see its marriage legislation enacted before
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's anticipated retirement in February.
Canada's religious right is also turning to the nation's highest court in
hopes of blocking legal same-gender marriages. The groups Real Women and Focus
on the Family Canada, with the support of other organizations, announced this
week that they're filing their own appeal of the Ontario ruling. The
Canadian Government had decided not to appeal that decision, and it would be unusual
-- but not unprecedented -- for the Supreme Court to take up the case for
review solely at the request of an outside intervenor that wasn't a party to it.
Zurich last week became the second Swiss canton to legally register
same-gender couples, with 73-year-olds Ernst Ostertag and Robert Rapp the first to be
officially recognized after 47 years together. Geneva was the first canton
to adopt a partners registry in 2001, but Zurich's partnerships are notable on
3 grounds: they carry more legal rights, including taxation status equal to
heterosexual couples; they're the first in the predominantly German-speaking
part of Switzerland; and they were the first in the world to win a referendum,
with support from 62% of voters.
The British Government last week published its plan to create "registered
civil partnerships" solely for gay and lesbian couples, carrying legal status
similar to married couples in areas including property, tenancy, taxation,
social security, government and private pensions, parental status, immigration,
inheritance, and medical decision-making. In short, it appears to be civil
marriage in all but name and official ceremony. The plan also includes
dissolutions with the possibility of alimony payments and child visitation.
Public input will be accepted on the discussion paper through the end of
September, and a bill might be introduced in the next legislative session. The
Opposition Conservative Party immediately announced that its lawmakers will be
free to vote their consciences on the matter, which would seem to ensure its
passage.
The British Government this week published its long-awaited plans to allow
transgenders to change their birth certificates to reflect their
self-identification, and to legally marry a partner of the other sex. Almost alone among
European nations, Britain had previously fought such amendments all the way
through the European courts, and recently Britain's own highest court, the Law
Lords, refused to recognize a transsexual's 20-year marriage. Indeed
gay-supportive Liberal Democratic Member of Parliament Evan Harris said the government
should apologize to transsexuals for taking so long to ensure their basic human
rights. The proposed legislation does not require sex reassignment surgery
for transgenders to change their birth certificates, but it does require them
to apply to and appear before a new gender recognition panel, to prove their dia
gnosis with "gender dysphoria" and to swear they will live in their chosen
gender for at least a few years and plan to do so for the rest of their lives.
The proposal includes an option for clergy to decline to perform marriages for
transgenders. Also, transgenders who are already married to someone of their
own self-identified gender will have to divorce in order to obtain revised
birth certificates.
Transsexuals are also winning the right to revised birth registrations in
Japan, with a unanimous vote of the Lower House, the Diet, this week on a bill
to go into effect next year. The revised registrations are open only to those
who have had sex reassignment surgery, are unmarried, have no children, and
are at least 20 years old, and require at least two doctors' diagnosis of
"gender identity disorder". The quick passage of the bill is widely credited to
the campaign of Japan's first openly transsexual elected official, Aya Kamikawa
of the Assembly of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
Four Japanese cities, most recently Fujisawa in the Kanagawa Prefecture last
month, had already determined to remove as many gender notations as possible
from their official documents and forms, to avoid embarrassing transgenders.
Back in Britain, activists celebrated this week as the path was finally
cleared for repeal of the notorious Section 28, the 1988 Thatcher-era prohibition
against local governments devoting resources to the "promotion of
homosexuality" and of the acceptability of gay and lesbian families, which it labels
"pretend". Although the Government has been trying to get the offensive clause
off the books since the Labour Party took power in 1997, its efforts were
repeatedly stalled in the House of Lords with the Conservative Party leading the
resistance. This week, the Conservative's latest strategy to block repeal in the
Lords -- an amendment to replace Section 28 with a chance for parents to veto
all sex education in schools -- was defeated by a near-landslide. That vote
leaves intact the Government's version of the Local Government Act, which
repeals Section 28.
Conservative Lady Blatchford, the point person for Tory anti-gay moves in the
Lords, complained that only one of the 24 Church of England bishops there
supported her amendment, and none joined the debate.
Yet there will be no openly gay bishop in the Church of England soon.
Canon Jeffrey John, partnered but long celibate, had been confirmed to be
consecrated Bishop of Reading in October. But after an extended meeting with
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and his staff, Williams announced sadly that
John declined the appointment. John's letter to Bishop of Oxford Richard
Harries, who had appointed him and supported him through a media firestorm, cited
"the damage my consecration might cause to the unity of the Church, including
the Anglican Communion."
Indeed 15 of the 38 primates, the regional leaders of the 70-million-member
global Anglican Communion, had protested John's elevation. The Archbishop of
Nigeria, with the church's largest regional membership, was the leading voice
threatening schism if John became a bishop. The dissension was just as great
within the Church of England, with conservative parishes threatening to
withdraw their financial support.
Actually as a celibate John was within the published 1991 guidelines of the
Church of England, but conservatives there complained that he has never
repented of his love. More widely, John's openness and civil rights activism were
seen as making him unsuitable as a moral leader or role model.
The threat of a split in the 400-year-old church was such that Queen
Elizabeth herself reportedly expressed concern to Williams.
Some of John's supporters insist that he only stepped down after serious
arm-twisting by Williams, since John had been determined to take up his new role.
Ironically, Williams is more of a theological liberal on gay issues than his
predecessor George Carey, but after John's withdrawal Carey told reporters
that he had knowingly ordained two celibate gays as bishops.
To Britain's leading gay activist Peter Tatchell, who notoriously staged a
protest demonstration in the middle of one of Carey's Easter services, the
failure to promote John was nothing less than a victory for homophobia. As the
Church of England's General Synod gathered soon after the announcement this
week, church leaders agreed not to discuss the matter formally since the time
pressure of the scheduled consecration was off and emotions were high. But
Tatchell and a handful of other protestors broke in on the meeting to denounce the
church at length, sending about half the audience out the door although
Williams stayed to hear him out. To those who rely on the word of the Bible,
Tatchell dared them to follow the prescription of Leviticus to put him to death for
having sex with men.
Particularly saddened by the turn of events was openly partnered gay U.S.
Canon Gene Robinson, who was recently elected by the diocese of New Hampshire to
become their next bishop, but awaits approval from the Episcopalian national
leadership next week.
And finally... openly lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova this week
won a record-tying 20th Wimbledon title, becoming at 46 the oldest Wimbledon
champ ever. She took the cup in mixed doubles with Leander Paes of India, who
was born just a week before her first Wimbledon match 30 years ago.